Image processing device, program recording medium, and image acquisition apparatus

Abstract

An image processing device includes a component separation section configured to separate an original image signal into a plurality of components including a first component that is a framework component and a second component obtained from a residue corresponding to the original image signal from which the first component has been excluded, an edge information acquisition section configured to obtain edge information from the first component included in the plurality of components, a fluctuation-component reduction section configured to reduce a fluctuation component at least of the second component included in the plurality of components, a parameter acquisition section configured to acquire a parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section based on the obtained edge information, and a component synthesis section configured to synthesize the first component and the component other than the first component in which the fluctuation component has been reduced.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An image processing device comprising:
 a component separation section configured to separate an original image signal into a plurality of components including (i) a first component that is a framework component of the original image signal, the first component containing a slowly fluctuating component and an edge component, and (ii) a second component that is a residual component corresponding to the original image signal from which the first component has been excluded, the second component containing a texture component and a fluctuation component, and the fluctuation component representing noise; 
 an edge information acquisition section configured to obtain edge information from the first component; 
 a fluctuation-component reduction section configured to reduce the fluctuation component of at least the second component, and to output a corrected second component; 
 a parameter acquisition section configured to acquire a parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section based on the edge information obtained by the edge information acquisition section; and 
 a component synthesis section configured to synthesize the first component and the corrected second component; 
 wherein the first component is one of (i) a low-order component resulting from orthogonal basis expansion of the original image signal, and (ii) a result of application of a Bilateral Filter to the original image signal. 
 
     
     
       2. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the fluctuation-component reduction section includes a filtering unit, and the parameter acquisition section is configured to change a coefficient for the filtering section based on the edge information from the first component. 
     
     
       3. The image processing device according to  claim 2 , wherein the filtering section includes a directional filtering section, and is configured to perform smoothing along an edge direction based on the edge information from the first component. 
     
     
       4. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second edge information acquisition section configured to obtain edge information at least from the second component, 
 wherein the parameter acquisition section is configured to acquire the parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section based on the edge information acquired from the first component by the edge information acquisition section and the edge information acquired from the second component by the second edge information acquisition section. 
 
     
     
       5. The image processing device according to  claim 4 , wherein the fluctuation-component reduction section includes an intermediate-component synthesis section configured to perform synthesis using a mixing coefficient determined based on the edge information acquired from the first component by the edge information acquisition section and the edge information acquired from the second component by the second edge information acquisition section. 
     
     
       6. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the fluctuation-component reduction section includes an intermediate-component synthesis section configured to perform synthesis using a mixing coefficient determined based on the edge information acquired from the first component by the edge information acquisition section. 
     
     
       7. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second edge information acquisition section configured to obtain edge information at least from the second component, 
 wherein the fluctuation-component reduction section includes an intermediate-component synthesis section configured to perform synthesis using a mixing coefficient determined based on the edge information acquired from the first component by the edge information acquisition section and the edge information acquired from the second component by the second edge information acquisition section. 
 
     
     
       8. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the original image signal includes a plurality of color signals, 
 the edge information acquisition section is configured to acquire edge information from each color signal for the first component, 
 the fluctuation-component reduction section is configured to reduce a fluctuation component of each color signal for at least the second component, and 
 the parameter acquisition section is configured to acquire a parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section which corresponds to each color signal for at least the second component, based on the edge information from each color signal for the first component. 
 
     
     
       9. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the original image signal includes a plurality of color signals, 
 the image processing device further comprises a luminance signal generation section configured to generate a luminance signal from each color signal for the first color component, 
 the edge information acquisition section is configured to acquire edge information from the luminance signal, and 
 the parameter acquisition section is configured to use the edge information from the luminance signal to acquire a parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section which corresponds to each color signal for at least the second component. 
 
     
     
       10. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the original image signal is a monochromatic signal, 
 the edge information acquisition section is configured to acquire edge information from the first component based on luminance level information from the first component, 
 the parameter acquisition section is configured to acquire a parameter based on luminance information acquired using the luminance level information from the first component, and 
 the fluctuation-component reduction section is configured to reduce a fluctuation component with respect to the luminance level of the second component. 
 
     
     
       11. The image processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the component separation section is configured to additively separate the original image signal into the first component and the second component. 
     
     
       12. An image acquisition apparatus comprising:
 an image acquisition section configured to convert an optical image into an image signal; 
 a component separation section configured to separate the image signal into a plurality of components including (i) a first component that is a framework component of the original image signal, the first component containing a slowly fluctuating component and an edge component, and (ii) second component that is a residual component corresponding to the image signal from which the first component has been excluded, the second component containing a texture component and a fluctuation component, and the fluctuation component representing noise; 
 an edge information acquisition section configured to obtain edge information from the first component; 
 a fluctuation-component reduction section configured to reduce the fluctuation component of at least the second component and to output a corrected second component; 
 a parameter acquisition section configured to acquire a parameter for the fluctuation-component reduction section based on the edge information obtained by the edge information acquisition section; and 
 a component synthesis section configured to synthesize the first component and the corrected second component; 
 wherein the first component is one of (i) a low-order component resulting from orthogonal basis expansion of the original image signal, and (ii) a result of application of a Bilateral Filter to the original image signal. 
 
     
     
       13. A non-transitory program recording medium having a program stored thereon, wherein the program controls a computer to perform functions comprising:
 separating an original image signal into a plurality of components including (i) a first component that is a framework component of the original image signal, the framework component containing a slowly fluctuating component and an edge component, and (ii) a second component that is a residual component corresponding to the original image signal from which the first component has been excluded, the second component containing a texture component and a fluctuation component, and the fluctuation component representing noise; 
 obtaining edge information from the first component; 
 acquiring a parameter for fluctuation-component reduction based on the edge information; 
 reducing the fluctuation component at least of the second component in accordance with the parameter, and outputting a corrected second component; and 
 synthesizing the first component and the corrected second component; 
 wherein the first component is one of (i) a low-order component resulting from orthogonal basis expansion of the original image signal, and (ii) a result of application of a Bilateral Filter to the original image signal.